The children who will start school is called the Maxi group. During the whole year they will have an own group where they work with different subjects for preparing for school. The plan for this year you can se here:

Transitional objects are objects, games or toys that the children will encounter both in the kindergarten and in school. In the municipality of Bærum. All the kindergartens and schools in the municipality of Bærum shall get to know a joint book, a game, a playing activity and a song. The idea behind the use of joint transitional objects in the municipality is to increase the chance that the children experience a coherence and context between the kindergarten and the school.

During the autumn before school starts, all the children who will begin in 1st grade at schools in the municipality of Bærum, will receive a letter from the school with information about how to apply, deadlines and sign-up sheet. Pupils who wish to attend a different school shall send in a form both to the school they belong to and to their chosen school. The sign-up process happens electronically at the municipality’s website. The deadline is 1st November.

SIGNING UP FOR THE AFTER SCHOOL-PROGRAMME

For schools in the municipality of Bærum, the final sign-up for the after school-programme (SFO) is electronic and within 1st June. The sign-up sheet is available at the municipality’s website.

All the schools initiate cooperation meetings between the kindergarten and school in order to meet and discuss the transition from kindergarten to school. The schools in Bærum have two cooperation meetings each year, and they invite the kindergartens that are within their given zone. We belong to the zone for Høvik Verk school. As we are not a typical local kindergarten, and have children who will start many different schools, we will each year assess which meetings are beneficial for us to attend. We will contact the chosen schools ourselves.

Buddy-scheme

In Bærum, all the schools will have a buddy-scheme. The idea behind the buddy-scheme is to give the new pupils the chance to get to know the other pupils in order to create a safe start for them. This scheme can begin in the spring before the children start school, and last all through the first school year.

Visits to the schools/SFO (after school-programme)

The schools in the municipality of Bærum invite the kindergartens that are geographically close to join them in an activity at the school/SFO (e.g. a song gathering, play, maths-day, activity day or at SFO). We will be invited to Høvik Verk school. Because we have a lot of other schools that the children will attend, the kindergarten will contact all the schools in order to be able to visit them. We will also contact schools in other municipalities to come and visit them as well.

“Mini school day”

All children who will begin 1st grade are invited to a “mini school day” at the school. At the schools in Bærum, the parents join their children on this day. For the schools outside of Bærum, the parents have to join as well because we, unfortunately, do not have the opportunity to attend. The purpose of this day is to make the children familiar with the school and how the days are at school. In Bærum, the day will be organised by teachers who are familiar with 1st grade. The day will focus on subjects, similar to an ordinary day in 1st grade. The children will also get to know SFO (the after school-programme) and its location and routines. Buddies or children from SFO from 4th grade will host the children. A letter with information about the mini-school days will be sent home with the children from the schools so that you will have the information in good time beforehand.

Principal/department leader visits the school-starters in the kindergarten

For the schools in the municipality of Bærum, the principal or department leader who is responsible for 1st grade and SFO, will come to the kindergarten to visit the children who will start 1st grade. The visit will be casual and its purpose is to give the children the chance to get to know the principal/department leader, and to ask them questions about the school. If there are less than three children in a kindergarten who will begin the given school, the school can invite these children and their parents to a get-to-know-each-other meeting before the mini school day.

All parents will be invited to a transition conversation which will be the last parent conversation in the kindergarten. The purpose with this conversation is to evaluate the child’s time in the kindergarten and prepare both the children and parents for the transition to school. The parents/guardians will be given a information sheet before with the transition form and a form called “Here I am!”. The form “Here I am!”, the child will fill out together with the parents, and is it to provide a bit of information about who the child is, as well as their ideas about school. The educational leader and parents will fill out the transition forms separately and bring them to the conversation. The form “Here I am!” will be added to the transition form that the school receives.

The purpose of the transition forms is to ensure that the information that is transitioned is for the best for the child and their further education.

In some cases it might be beneficial to have a transition meeting with the school. This will be clarified with the parents before the transition conversation.

At the same day as the yearly barbecue party, we will have an end-of-year celebration for the Maxi-children at 4.15pm before the barbecue party begins. Siblings and parents are welcome to join the ceremony where the children will be given their memory folders.

During May, the Maxi-children will be offered the chance to attend a nature school, organised by the Outdoor school “Overallehauger”. The nature school will last for 4 weeks and is located at Knabberud. We will travel by mini-bus to Knabberud. The parents will pay for the course and the kindergarten will pay for the transport.

The nature school encourages challenges, excitement, learning and playing in the woods. The course focuses on the spring and the use of our senses, as well as new life. There are visits to the birdcages and explorations of the pond. There are also nature trails, whittling and track trails with different topics.

We will learn a lot of new things that we can bring “home” to the woods around Veritas, and we can continue our exploration.

More information and the programme concerning the nature school will be sent out beforehand.

For many years, it has been a tradition for the Maxi-children to have a sleepover at a deserted island. We go out to Saraholmen, an islet that we can see from the beach. The children will hear the story about the islet beforehand. There has been a house there, a stove foundry, and several families have lived there. We will hear some of the stories that the children experienced and how they lived.

We will bring a lavvo and get ready for an expedition. We will walk around the island to look at the ruins of the different settlements. We also have to walk past the scary cliff that is also the centre of some exciting stories. We will bring a trash bag and pick up everything that does not belong in nature.

At the end of the islet we have to be especially careful because there are often bird nests on the ground. We also look at plants and insects that live there.

During the day we will fish for crab, and also do some swimming. We will have a barbecue, and at the end of the day it will be nice to crawl into our sleeping bags. Most of the children sleep very well after a long day of exploring, even if it is the first night sleeping in a lavvo, and maybe without parents present.

There will be plenty of love, courage and enthusiasm during this trip!

More information about the trip with times and a packing list will follow.